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So far the story of the Trump administration when it comes to the economy is a tale of two countries: There are two paths that the United States might take under Donald Trump, and they end in very different national environments. What country America is becoming at any given time depends on which member of the administration is speaking on television and/or what mood Trump is in.

The first country is a more dynamic version of the current one, in which the stock market keeps rising and America remains an international center of innovation and production -- but in a superpowered way, thanks to Trump using the threat of tariffs to renegotiate trade deals with foreign powers in a way that further opens up markets for U.S. companies. It's the art of the f -- ing deal!!! This is, according to figures like Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and sometimes Trump, what Trump is always working toward, using said art of the deal.

The second country is a modern version of, I don't know, shogunate Japan, where tariffs are enormous and permanent, foreign professionals are actively excluded from the country, science and medical research is nonexistent, children's dolls are as precious as gold, and Americans are funneled into manual labor jobs like making screws for Apple. This is the vision for the future held by figures like White House counselor Peter Navarro, Vice President J.D. Vance, and sometimes Trump: A nation of serfs -- who are happy, despite being serfs in 2025, because the country has been returned to its prior state of cultural homogeneity (read: most of the population is white people) and spiritually rewarding manual labor.

Financial markets would very much like the first country, rather than North Korea With Energy Drinks, to be the one that the U.S. moves toward becoming in the next three to four years. When Trump announced a temporary tariff détente with China, markets went crazy; you could practically feel the collective desperation of the world's financial people to reward him for not screwing up the good thing they have going.

Bad news for those people (and many others), though: The administration's Isolated Peasantry Caucus has been racking up some wins.

OK! Time to Google "What is subsistence farming and how do I start doing it in my yard?" Have a nice week!